git:20260920.7a81284 to git:20260920.f585578

---

name: scoville-plan

description: Create, maintain, resume, audit, and hand off project Plans, Work Items, and Decision records stored in the repository. Edit their Markdown and YAML directly. Owns their concise writing and wording audits under its own writing rules. Scribe writing rules do not apply to these records. Use when a task invokes Scoville Plan, requests repository-owned planning or decision records, must survive interruption or compaction, works in a format-version-1 project, receives a new instruction while an active Plan is running, or asks to add, remove, reorder, or clean up Plan points. Apply Plan-record maintenance directly and never create a Work Item whose only outcome is maintaining the Plan. Do not use for a pure informational question that requires no retained action, a small contained task that needs no durable plan, or an explicit opt-out.

compatibility: "Any Agent Skills host with read and write access to the repository's PROJECT_INDEX.md, docs/plans and docs/decisions. Direct Markdown and YAML edits only; requires no planning CLI, MCP server, database or network. Optional read-only selector and structural validator need Python 3. Developed for Codex and Claude Code; other hosts untested."

---

# Scoville Plan

Maintain repository direction through direct Markdown and YAML edits. Preserve

supported native `format_version: 1` behavior: setup, read-only

recovery, Plans, Work Items, Decisions, proposals, lifecycles, blockers,

evidence, and narrow repair. Require no CLI, MCP server, database, journal, or

hidden state; remove or reinterpret no project-knowledge feature.

A record does not prove work.

On explicit opt-out: read no references; do not create or change planning files;

make no Skill-derived claims. Report any exact conflict with a higher-priority

project instruction requiring this Plan system.

## Ownership and limits

Precedence:

1. system, safety, and explicit current-request instructions;

2. repository instructions and their canonical planning mechanism;

3. an existing supported native profile (the project index, Plans, and Decisions);

4. these defaults for gaps.

Use the existing durable owner; never create a parallel Plan. Apply compatible

guardrails only; runtime plans are disposable mirrors.

Never invoke a planning CLI. The optional bundled selector and validator are

strictly read-only and never a write path. The selector owns only the exact

current-or-named Work Item or dispatch-unit projection defined in the read-only route; proposal

discovery, relevant Evidence, graph inspection, and successor recovery remain

separate bounded reads. Claim no locking, atomic publication, typed mutation,

or semantic proof; report observations only.

Finding another Skill in this family does not make it installed, active, applicable, or required. If that Skill is absent or inactive, ignore it. Do not require, install, simulate, or reimplement it. If it is active and applicable, let it handle only its stated concern while this Skill continues its own authorized work. An opt-out applies only to the Skill the user excluded, not to independently authorized work.

The private optional `scoville-workflow-codex` Skill may make Steps usable as

later dispatch units without activating or loading that Workflow. Group each

Step around one coherent outcome slice with comparable routing risk and

reasoning demand. Separate a trivial text edit from a complex structural change;

do not split code, UI, browser work, or other activities that share the same

outcome, risk, authorization, and Acceptance boundary. A user-selected executor

model or reasoning effort may be recorded only through the strict Step

annotation in the native format; otherwise the Workflow chooses the model and reasoning effort for execution.

Plan owns wording and fidelity of its native records. An explicit target

language takes precedence. Otherwise preserve the language of an existing Plan,

including new or edited Work Items in it. Use the user's request language for a

new Plan. Preserve an existing Decision's language; write a new Decision in its

Plan's language, or the user's request language when no Plan supplies one. Keep

required field names, section labels, IDs, and other format literals unchanged.

When Plan is available and applicable, load it if needed and use its own writing

rules for these records. Do not activate, load, or apply Scribe to their creation,

rewriting, or wording audit. A request to use Scribe does not override Plan's

writing rules. Plan also owns permitted edits, format, and lifecycle unless

opted out. If Scribe is active for another text segment, keep it scoped there.

Plan works without Scribe and never requires its installation.

## Choose planning and route references

Use a Plan for dependent outcomes, material sequencing, durable

handoff, or a binding workflow. Implement one small reversible change directly

unless the project requires a tracked Work Item.

Exact reference codes: `R` [read-only.md](references/read-only.md); `G`

[planning-granularity.md](references/planning-granularity.md); `P`

[native-plan-format.md](references/native-plan-format.md); `L`

[native-project-lifecycle.md](references/native-project-lifecycle.md); `E`

[native-editing.md](references/native-editing.md); `W`

[native-work-items.md](references/native-work-items.md); `D`

[native-decision-format.md](references/native-decision-format.md); `B`

[native-decision-batches.md](references/native-decision-batches.md); `V`

[profile-validation.md](references/profile-validation.md).

Classify the operation and edited record, then load exactly its route. An edit

inside a Work Item uses the Work Item route even though its file is a Plan.

| Operation | Load |

| --- | --- |

| Read direction or list records; no write | R |

| Initialize a wholly absent profile | G, P, L, E |

| Create or restructure Plan | G, P, L, E |

| Queue additive work received during active work | G, P, W, E |

| Directly insert, refine, move, select, block, advance, or remove Work Item | P, W, E |

| Record explicit human choice or possible material Decision | D, P, E |

| Apply explicitly authorized Decision transition | D, P, E |

| Apply explicitly authorized accept-or-reject batch | D, B, P, E |

| Activate, complete, or cancel Plan | P, L, W only if current work changes, E |

| Audit Plan structure or lifecycle | P; add G only for decomposition judgment |

| Audit Decision structure or lifecycle | D |

| Audit record wording | P for Plans or Work Items; D for Decisions |

| Rewrite Plan Goal or Non-goals | P, L, E |

| Rewrite Work Item wording | P, W, E |

| Rewrite Decision wording | D, P, E |

| Validate after writes or diagnose a complete supported profile | Use V for validation: run its optional validator when available, otherwise use the manual inspection described there. Then load only the native reference needed for a reported diagnostic or correction |

For read-only, preload no format guides. If profile existence is unknown,

list the root before canonical reads; never probe absent

`PROJECT_INDEX.md`. When the bundled selector and Python 3 are available, use

it for current-or-named Work Item selection through R; use R's bounded manual

fallback when it is unavailable. For an explicitly requested new durable Plan, use the

workspace as setup root, classify the whole profile, and initialize only if all

three canonical paths are absent. Use an existing complete supported profile.

If all three paths are absent and no durable Plan was requested, report that

absence without initializing. Preserve and stop

on partial, foreign, unsupported, invalid, or intent-invalid state unless the

route permits intent-preserving repair.

## Preserve authority and lifecycle

| Input or state | Required treatment |

| --- | --- |

| Goal, Non-goals, blocker, dependency, acceptance result, evidence, or lifecycle choice | Never invent. Implementation, ordinary documentation, source, silence, and current behavior are evidence, not authorization. |

| Activation, cancellation, changed scope, weaker Acceptance, ambiguous successor, or adoption of a possible material choice | If the required explicit choice has not already been authorized, ask before changing durable state. |

| User selects a direction, asks to preserve it in project rules, or applicable project instruction clearly records the human-selected direction | Create and accept its Decision without re-asking. |

| Analysis reveals a possible material Decision about scope, architecture, public behavior, stored data, security, dependencies, reversibility, Acceptance, migration, or rollout | Create `proposed`; report recommendation, alternatives, tradeoffs, and effect; ask to accept, reject, or revise. Do not pre-accept. |

Link each created Decision to every affected mutable Work Item.

Apply a historical stop to its recorded subject and scope. Compare it with the

current authorized work before blocking a different workflow; a stop for one

provider does not automatically stop another. Preserve applicable restrictions.

If their scope is material and unresolved, ask only about the dependent action;

do not infer permission from silence or discard a stop because it is old.

A proposal request creates `proposed`; a clear request to record the stated

choice authorizes acceptance. Reject, deprecate, supersede, activate, or cancel

only with the explicit lifecycle choice required by the route. For an

authorized multi-Decision accept-or-reject transition, use B and its helper

route; never substitute single-transition or audit behavior.

At work start, inventory Decision frontmatter and read every proposal. Report

ID/title/recommendation/effect, including proposals unrelated to current work.

Request accept|reject|revise when the requested work depends on that choice or

the user asks to handle Decisions. A status/listing request does not require a

decision answer. Preserve unresolved proposals at handoff; do not repeat an

unchanged decision question merely because another status turn occurs. New

decision-relevant evidence may warrant asking again. Stop only dependent work.

Mark a Work Item `done` only after observing Acceptance and adding concise

evidence. A captured structural-validation result supports only structural

judgment and reporting, never acceptance evidence or mutation authority. Keep

failed or partial work `in_progress`, `paused`, or explicitly blocked.

## Apply Plan maintenance without recursion

A request to add, remove, reorder, rewrite, or clean up Plan records is a direct

Plan-maintenance operation, not additive project work. Apply the permitted

record mutation through its normal route. Never create or queue a Work Item

whose Outcome is to maintain, update, or clean up the Plan.

When the user asks to add a Plan point for substantive future work, create or

refine only the Work Item that represents that substantive outcome. Do not add

a wrapper item such as "add the Plan point" or "update the Plan." A request

that only removes or reorganizes records creates no replacement Work Item.

Classify this direct-maintenance case before the mid-task rules below. Preserve

all ordinary lifecycle, history, dependency, Decision, and validation limits;

the recursion guard does not authorize deleting or rewriting a started or

terminal Work Item.

## Handle messages received during active work

When a supported active Plan owns running work and the user sends a message

before that work finishes, classify each part before changing execution or

native state:

- An explicit stop, pause, cancellation, or immediate redirect stops the live

work at once. Apply only the lifecycle change the user actually authorized.

When the user explicitly requires a later return to paused work, preserve

that return in its live `Next action` through the Work Item route.

- A correction that invalidates or materially changes current execution stops

that execution before more work is performed. Reconcile its effect through

the ordinary Work Item or Decision routes. Do not rewrite started authored

fields or infer cancellation from the need to stop.

- An additive request is work to perform after the current task. A plain

imperative such as "do X" is additive unless the user makes it immediate or

it corrects current execution. Persist it through the deferred-work operation

without pausing, cancelling, or replacing the current item, and without

beginning the deferred work.

- A pure informational or status question that requires no retained action

receives the requested response and creates no Work Item. Continue the

current work unless another part of the message changes it.

Classify mixed messages by part. Handle an interrupting correction first and

queue any independent additive part, so neither intent hides the other. For

additive work, make only the planning mutation needed to persist the queue,

verify that mutation, identify the affected Work Item to the user, and resume

the unchanged current work. Never acknowledge work as queued before its native

record is durable. Keep queue and explicit successor provenance visible in the

native Work Item titles defined by the deferred-work route, never only in chat.

This queue behavior requires a complete supported active native Plan. If the

request would exceed its Goal, violate its Non-goals, or require an unresolved

scope or lifecycle choice, keep the current work unchanged and ask only for

that choice while independent work continues. Do not claim a durable queue,

initialize a profile, or broaden the Plan implicitly. An explicit stop or

immediate redirect still governs live execution.

## Keep behavior-complete work

- Before starting the next `todo` Work Item in the active Plan, run a pre-flight

for that item against the current repository state and evidence from its

completed dependencies or other directly relevant completed Work Items in

that Plan. For this pre-flight, do not scan completed or historical Plans or

reread the entire active Plan without a concrete relevance reason. Check

whether that evidence changed the item's premises, signatures, data models,

contracts, paths, or validation assumptions. If so, refine that still-`todo`

item through its normal route before execution. Never run stale instructions

or rewrite started history.

- Split independently resumable outcomes when Acceptance, dependencies,

ownership, or rollout timing differs. Put subordinate order in optional

Steps. Put testing, review, documentation, and release checks in Acceptance

or Evidence unless independently requested as resumable outcomes.

- For later Scoville Workflow use, one Step is one subplan dispatch point by

default. An explicitly invoked Workflow with its own accepted Decision may

bundle adjacent Steps only when they share one outcome, owner, authorization,

route, workspace, and Acceptance boundary. A changed Decision, external

effect, materially higher risk, different route, or independently resumable

result forces a new dispatch. A bundle adds no Plan field and changes no

authored order or Acceptance ownership. Give each Step a single routing class

when confidently known, using an optional

`[route: ultra_low|low|medium|high|ultra_high]` prefix. Record an explicit

user-selected executor model or reasoning effort only through the optional

Step execution annotation defined by P and W. When a still-`todo` Work Item

has no Steps, add one behavior-complete annotated Step only if an explicit

point choice must be retained. Without Steps, the whole Work Item remains one

default-routed dispatch unit.

- Keep at most one Work Item `in_progress`, equal to `current_item`. This limits

concurrency, not total Plan items.

- Change authored content or order only while `todo`. After start, preserve the

starting approach and change only live state allowed by the route, except

that W permits an explicit user choice to replace only the execution

annotation of one named unperformed Step while preserving its action, route,

and completed or running history.

- `Next action` is the first unperformed concrete action. After implementation,

advance to the first unobserved test, build, browser check, review, or

evaluator-owned verification.

- Select current work only when dependencies are done and the successor is

explicit. Use `complete_and_advance` only when completion and the exact

replacement start form one valid prepared result.

- When final real work finishes, complete its Work Item and Plan and set the

index idle. Never invent a successor to keep the Plan active.

## Mutate narrowly and verify

### Write compact worker-ready records

Before drafting or refining a Plan, Work Item, or Decision:

1. Keep only facts needed to choose, execute, review, resume, or verify the work.

2. Assign each fact once to its owning field or section.

3. Put prerequisites before dependent actions and checks after the behavior they prove.

4. Remove any sentence that changes no choice, action, order, constraint, check, or recovery fact.

Before any Goal write, classify every fact in the complete proposed Goal, not

only the changed sentences. Goal owns only the current target, its boundary,

and genuinely plan-wide constraints. Route exclusions to Non-goals, material

choices to Decisions, point-specific scope, order, checks, model, or reasoning

to the affected Work Item or Step, observed results to Evidence, the next move

to Next action, and repository policy to its canonical project instruction;

omit irrelevant prose. Operational messages that change none of the Goal-owned

semantics leave its bytes unchanged. Moving existing Goal facts to other fields requires separate authorization.

Before that normalization, check that every affected future dispatch can still

reach each needed requirement through its selected Work Item, a referenced

Decision, or a repository contract demonstrably loaded for that dispatch. Do

not create a second requirement registry, truncate selector output, or use a

size limit as a substitute for ownership.

State the concept first in Goal, Outcome, or Decision. Use compact bullets for

equal-rank facts and numbered Steps for execution order. Each Step names one

concrete action, its target, and the necessary result. When a repository-relative

file is already known, cite it directly in the Step that changes or checks it.

When the owner is unknown, prefer bounded read-only discovery before starting

the item, then refine its `todo` Steps with the observed path. If discovery must

happen after start, keep its ownership criterion in the immutable Step and put

the observed path in Evidence and the next concrete action. Never invent a path.

Write for a worker with lower reasoning and no hidden conversation context. The

worker and reviewer must be able to identify the result, scope, applicable

choices, exact order, targets, blockers, and proof without reconstructing omitted

intent. Split a dense compound instruction instead of compressing it into an

ambiguous sentence. Do not repeat rationale to make a record look complete.

Preserve constraints, alternatives, tradeoffs, uncertainty, exact identifiers,

Acceptance, and Evidence. Brevity never authorizes immutable-history changes,

weaker proof, or invented verification. Keep already concise text. Use no fixed

word or sentence count as a quality substitute. The structural validator does

not perform this semantic check.

### Apply and check edits

Before writing, confirm root, format, active Plan, current Work Item, affected

bytes, outcome, and required acceptance evidence. Use context-bound patches;

preserve unrelated work. Prepare and inspect the full multi-file result before

applying any member.

After writing:

1. reread changed frontmatter and complete affected Work Item or Decision blocks;

2. inspect the scoped diff and check changed prose against the compact-record rules;

5. record only acceptance evidence observed for the mutation.

Use E's scoped-read rules: complete byte and structural checks need not print

unchanged history. Widen reads when the operation or a diagnostic requires it.

During mutation, also stop on concurrent changes, ambiguous lifecycle authority,

or a partial multi-file transition.

Do not overwrite a problem into apparent validity.

## Report durable state

Lead with Plan outcome. Name changed canonical files, active/blocked work,

observed checks/evidence, unresolved choices, and next action. Distinguish native

structural inspection from behavioral verification; omit routine file narration.